


What She Wants, She Gets

by Nyx_Auralis



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: F/F, Gift Fic, Here there be gay, give swaegryl a girlfriend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:42:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26417395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyx_Auralis/pseuds/Nyx_Auralis
Summary: Friend of mine wanted a fic with the following line:"Give Swaegryl a girlfriend."  She's one the Red Swallows in Maelstrom, over by the kobold camp in Limsa (read: Titan questline).Here is my attempt at that endeavor.  Enjoy!
Relationships: Swaegryl/Swaestys
Kudos: 3





	What She Wants, She Gets

Swygrael is a woman of many talents, and with equitable responsibilities. Came with being the second-in-command of Camp Overlook. Captain Bloedin made the plans--she made them reality. From hunting pieces of local fauna to craft weapons for the perpetual war on kobolds to equating the power balance of beastkin--

\--maybe she shouldn’t have tried to tame a coeurl, but they were running out of ideas and bodies, bodies that she couldn’t stand trying to bury no time soon--

They weren’t the meanest shite-kicking unit in the whole damn Maelstrom for nothing. It was a title they earned, and they paid their dues in the blood of their fallen.

Besides, it worked out in the end. Kind of. The Warrior of Light saved them from the wrath of Titan, after all. Now there was talk of working with the kobolds, something about the ‘balance of aether in the realm to prevent the Ascians’ or some such nonsense. How Commander Merlwyb kept it straight was beyond her ken.

She wanted the affections and love of one particular Storm Lieutenant. 

The woman in the mirror gave the same hungry smile she’d always seen on the large, tentacle-whiskered felines known as coeurls. The beastkin were always solitary. She respected that about them, that commitment to power earned of their own merit.

She, too, would earn the heart of her lieutenant on her own.

What Swygrael wanted, she got.

It was just a matter of how.

* * *

There were few things that could bring Swaegryl to a stand still. Staring down Captain Bloedin while he was in the middle of one of his famous rants was one of them. 

Watching the apple of her eye have to take that was starting to become another one. Bloedin never lashed out like some of her old pirate captains would do, but he had a way of making his target feel lesser than the scum clinging to the bottom of a seaworthy ship. 

It was worse when he was right.

But this was a chance, and a pirate--well, former pirate--never turned down an opportunity.

"Hey, there, sweetheart, need a hand?"

The woman turned on a dime, gorgeous sea green eyes narrowing in focus as honey gold hair whipped behind her. She was in the standard Storm Lieutenant outfit, but the additional frills along the cuffs and the plunging cut of the chest was a sight to behold. 

"Not if you're going to stare any longer. What do you want from me?"

A fiery lass, eh? Oh, this would be a treasure worth plundering. 

"Apologies, milady, I was just surprised the Captain was fussing about your report and not your outfit," Swaegryl soothed as her lips curled into a wry smirk. The Lieutenant's face turned a pretty shade of sea foam. "Shows he's a man with sense--let a lady dress as she pleases. If you'll pardon my curiosity, what was he fussing for? Last I heard him that mad, it was for my trying to tame coeurls."

Not something she was proud of, but if it eased her nerves, it was worth the dig at her own pride. 

"Wait, that was  _ you _ ?" 

"The one and only," Swaegryl said with a grin. "Wasn't my best idea," why was she saying that  _ out loud _ , "but we don't have many other options."

"It was a brilliant concept, actually," the Lieutenant said with no small amount of enthusiasm. "Simply the wrong creature--we would be better off using something that is easier to train and counters the beastkin the kobolds have at their behest."

"Oh?" 

"Of course! It'd be easier, too, and would really make a difference in the creatures-- oh, where are my manners," she stopped talking, dusting herself off and dropping into a flawless curtly. "Swaestys, Storm Lieutenant, at your service. And you are--?"

"Swaegryl. I like your mind, Lieutenant Swaestys," Swaegryl said with a warm, honeyed smile. This was a pleasant change of events. "Shall we discuss this over a cup or two? It will be dinner in some time."

"Brilliant idea! I'll bring my notes!"

Swaestys. Almost like sweets, but with a spark of fire as intense as the kobold bombs they had all learned to be wary of and smart as a hungry coeurl.

She couldn't help the smile as she watched her--watched  _ Swaestys _ take off with a bounce in her step.

* * *

Swaestys proved to be everything she had been looking for, and with few extra surprises. The scholarly woman was a downright terror with an axe-- apparently she had trained with the yellow jackets before joining in with the Red Swallows.

Why someone as skilled as her joined the Red Swallows for as thankless a task as reporting on kobold movements to the captain was something she hadn't figured out yet.

Yet. 

It was a work in progress.

What she had figured out was that Swaestys was responsible for recon on all kobold activity--their advantages were solely based on her surveillance. It was thanks to her that the Swallows even recognized the build of crystals. The legends told of beast tribes being able to summon primals with the use of crystals, and they’d heard about what happened in Ul’dah with the Amal’jaa and Ifrit.

They wouldn’t do the same. The steel that showed in Swaestys’ eyes when they looked over the intel and her own battle plans was the look of a woman who’d stared death in the face. 

* * *

Nothing prepared her for the look of absolute wrath on Swaestys’ face after the Warrior of Light visited the camp.

“Those damn Ascians!”

Swaegryl leaned back, taking a heavy sip of the ale in her tanker, eyeing how far she’d have to reach to grab her own axe on the off chance her sweet thing decided she’d rather hack through the issue.

_ “Girl, you’re as strong as a horse, fast as a snake, and braver than the whole Company of Heroes put together. But your sister’s the clever one in the family--leave the thinking to her.” _

The thought sprung to mind unbidden as Swaestys pored over notes in between various yells of outrage. It was true, clever thinking wasn’t the easiest thing but even she could see something needed to be done. 

“Swaestys,” she put the tanker down as the lady in question whipped around to face her. The way Swaestys’ golden hair flowed behind her reminded her of a mane, but it was the chilling look in her eye--

\--her sweet thing was a coeurl incarnate.

“No, you don’t understand, if we don’t help them--”

“I’m your ally, sweet cat,” she said softly, slowly standing as she pulled Swaestys to stand in front of her. “I can understand fury, but even that has to come from somewhere. Talk to me.”

“What do you--have you ever wondered why the kobolds despise us so?”

“They want our land and crops,” she replied slowly. There was more to the question--it hung in the air and settled on her tongue, like the lingering citrus flavor of her ale. “But ‘s more than that, isn’t it?”

“Limsa Lominsa is a pirate nation, darling,” there was that accent she’d always adored. “Whatever we have, we’ve taken and made legal. Who do you think we took this land from?”

Suddenly, the viciousness the kobolds fought them with makes sense. Animals always fight hardest to protect what’s theirs. Primals answered the prayers of the beast tribes, just like the Navigator guided Limsa to land--according to the legends, anyway.

She wondered if the Navigator would answer their prayers.

She also wondered if Swaestys ever had her prayers answered.

“It wasn’t an easy battle,” Swaestys continued, holding her gaze. “Many suffered for it. We live on the coast, and a weak village makes a prime stop for hungry, weary pirates. Or, sometimes, for vengeful kobolds that are looking for crystals or food. What do you think happens when some fool villagers decide to stop them? What do you think happens when you run screaming in Limsa, begging for someone, anyone to come help your village? What do you think happens when you get back, only to realize that your family has died for the sins of their forebears?”

“They--” the words died on her lips just as the citrus aftertaste soured. There wasn’t much she could say. “But, sweet cat, are you after revenge all these years?”

“I don’t want revenge,” Swaestys shook her head with a bitter smile. “What good would it do? My family weren’t pirates, they were humble fisher folk. What I want is grander than that--”

“Don’t, dearest, you’ll--”

“I want to understand them,” Swaestys finished, caressing her face with a gentle, all-too-knowing smile. “I want to know what their struggles are. I want to know what drives them. I want to know if they can be reasoned with, if they will give us that chance. Not for the Swallows--I’m no noble blooded hero like the Company of Heroes. I want this war to cease.”

“You think that can happen from your clever studying?” she sounded incredulous, but it couldn’t be helped. There were fewer sights more terrifying than witnessing a group of kobolds besetting the fool that thought kobolds were weak--except, well, perhaps, the calm fury of the lady coeurl standing in front of her. “You are learned, I’ll give you that. But what about the people that have lost blood? Pirates do not forgive, sweetling, we pillage and we plunder with as little cost to ours as we can. We don’t admit of faults--we lie and we steal and we prey on the weak. As unfortunate as it is, the kobold were weak. Just like we were till we landed here and found someone weaker. Now the kobolds are tryin’ ta even the playing field, lass--you have to understand this much!”

Swaestys stilled, and in that moment, she knew--this was the woman she’d come to love over these moons, this was the woman she was trying to save. There were creatures more fierce than kobolds, and she happened to have been one of them a long, long time ago.

“What are you playing at, Swaegryl?” 

She didn’t try to stop her from pulling her hand away.

“I’m sayin’ that you have to do more than just understand them,” she explained softly. “They want their land back--what are you going to tell the families who’ve only been able to live because of those cruelties? What are you going to offer the kobolds that have spent years under our taxes--worse even than the lower Limsa districts? What about the military that has spent these years fighting these invasions and monsters?” She stepped closer, watching as Swaestys lowered her hands and taking them into her own. “I don’t want to kill ya dream, lovely, I want you to thrive--but not at the cost of you blindly going after booty trapped to Thal’s balls and back!”

“Is that why you went behind the captain’s back and asked for the Warrior of Light’s help?”

The lady was a damn coeurl all right. 

“If it meant you were saved,” Swaegryl admitted, feeling her face heat up as she rested her head on her shoulder, “it was worth it. I’ve seen what people like you can do, how you focus so intently that all else falls away. I didn’t want that to happen to you. You said it yourself--those crystal stores are enough to summon a primal.”

“I wouldn’t have taken you as the sentimental type, darling,” Swaestys purred, wrapping her arms around her. “Thank you.”

The gentle press of lips on the crown of her head was worth standing face to face with the coeurl of a woman in front of her.

* * *

The summon of Titan was, in many ways, worse than the aftermath of the Warrior defeating him. 

Swaestys had told her that those that called upon the primals were forever bound to them, living only to serve till the end of their lives. Instead of a life spent carving out happiness--

\--best not to think of it.

There was Ga Bu, the kobold child left after his father helped raise Titan with his own life. A fun bit of kobold society was that it was very much a might makes right society, made out of necessity due to lack of resources. The strongest troupe led them--any weaker were forced to serve in order to perpetuate their chances of survival.

But to be so desperate as to be willing to sacrifice one’s life? One’s own progeny in order to defeat an enemy?

She didn’t cry. She wasn’t crying. It was just a bit of dirt in her eye.

Swaestys found her overlooking the graves of their fallen comrades.

“You’re crying.”

A true statement, but Navigator’s tits she wasn’t about to admit that outright with any sort of ease.

“Maybe I am.”

“We did lose a lot of people,” Swaestys agreed softly, “It would have been had the Warrior not--”

“Everyone lost a lot of people, sweetheart,” she hissed, more in pain she couldn’t put into words versus any directed anger. “What are we, kitten? Are we really the defenders of Limsa? Is defending our city-state worth pushing a people to the point of sacrificing even their families for victory?”

“Darling--”

“Pirates have a code of conduct! This wouldn’t be allowed!” she could feel the tears streaming down her face, the memory of Ga Bu’s screams for his parent haunting her even now. “We s’posed to be better than pirates, skitten, but it seems to me we’ve become something far worse! And it took the Warrior of Light to show us the wrong of our ways!”

Arms, warm and strong, embraced her from behind. They ensnared her, gentle but no less firm. She was shaking, but in the scheme of things, it wasn’t important.

“It is a bittersweet victory,” Swaestys agreed, “but it was the best we could do. We are but two women--what we seek to change is the course of hundred of years and choices made before our time. It will take more time and, unfortunately, more sacrifices.”

She was but a flag in the breeze of the emotions forcing her to cling to her dear kitten with the force of a dying man.

“No more sacrifices like these,” Swaestys soothed, trembling ever so slightly. “We did the best we could. We are doing the best we could. We have to believe that. I believe that. Will you believe me?”

“I’ve always believed you, kitten,” she murmured. “Not many can stand in front of Captain Bloedin’s rages and be able to tell him he’s wrong to his face.”

“It was necessary,” Swaestys chuckled. “Had we not, we would have been cleaning the beastkin shite from our boots and stocks for a fortnight or more.”

She blinked in surprise as Swaestys gently tugged her face up, watching as her eyes seemed to search for something.

“Whatcha looking for, lass? I hope it’s not treasure, I’ve not got a map,” she joked, not at all nervous.

“Whatever do you mean, darling? The map is staring right at me,” Swaestys moved closer, and suddenly it was very apparent how soft her lips looked. “But I wonder if I can plunder the treasure?”

“Seems to me you haven’t studied the ways of pirates, my love.” It was almost unreal. “Is this really your choice?”

“We have both lost our comrades and earned the greatest success to date,” Swaestys pointed out. “If not now, when? How long will you wait to make your move? I have had my eye on you a while, now, darling. What will it take to--”

Her lips really were that soft.   
  



End file.
